The Arena
by Agent Frostbite
Summary: Nikki Skylar looked across the room to her opponent. He stood silently across from her. A lightsaber appeared in his hand, and he positioned himself into a fighting stance. This was gonna be fun.


The Arena

Nikki Skylar walked into the room, pressed a few buttons, and the program flared to life. She looked across the room to her opponent. He stood silently across from her. A lightsaber appeared in his hand, and he positioned himself into a fighting stance. The lightsaber activated, the red glow cutting through the air yet illuminating nothing. She pulled her lightsaber, ignited it, and smirked.

This was gonna be fun.

* * *

Knock Out thought he was losing his processor when he heard a violin. He glanced over to the computers on the far side of the room, where Natasha was standing next to Clint, researching something. So, not her. Playing music on a radio or playlist, then. Now, there were a few people who'd do that, but as he listened, he heard it coming from one of the hallways stemming off from the main room in the Autobots' isolated island base.

"What _is_ that?" Ratchet asked, looking around the room. Okay, so Knock Out wasn't crazy. That meant Nikki must be training. Made sense, but why was the music so loud? ...Unless Jarvis was trying to get their attention. Well, he'd done it.

Knock Out began walking toward the music's origin, listening as it grew louder. A few sets of footsteps behind him indicated that he wasn't the only one going to see who was the cause of the music. He briefly wondered if he should bother telling them it was Nikki, but quickly dismissed it. Jarvis wanted their attention, wanted someone to watch her.

They approached the reinforced glass window looking into the training holodeck. There they saw Nikki fighting a simulation of Inferno, with Lindsey Stirling's 'The Arena' playing in the background. But she wasn't simply fighting him, oh no. She was making a _show_ of it. She was _dancing_.

Her swings were timed perfectly to the music. With each crescendo, she swung the blade with blinding speed. She twirled - _twirled_ \- and used it either to avoid one of Inferno's attacks with grace and fluidity, or to come at him from a different angle. She flipped around and over Inferno, clearing the sweeping saber he was using or going straight over his head. The simulation was having an extremely hard time keeping up with the pace and intensity at which Nikki was attacking him.

The music brought out a graceful, flowing side of Nikki. Where once she wouldn't have been able to spin that tightly or quickly, she was turning 360s on a dime and having no trouble with it. She jumped and landed smoothly and with perfect balance, even kicking her leg out like a ballet dancer. It was all laced together, fighting moves and dance moves, making it almost impossible for Inferno to land a decent hit, or any hits at all, on the slender 16 year old.

The simulated Inferno was struggling to keep up. Nikki was all over the place, using moves that weren't in the playbook or had never been used before. She was at his left, then seconds later, his right. By the time he had his saber up to swing at her on the one side, she was on the other. Everywhere at once, with a fluidity Knock Out didn't know she possessed.

The chorus over, the music picked up in pace, as did Nikki. Flipping and twirling, landing blows that looked light but were devastating to the attacker. She backflipped out of the way of one of Inferno's swings, dropping to the ground and adding rolling to her routine. It was a beautiful, skillful mix of slashes and swings, jumping and ducking, rolling and twirling.

She got upright again, but stayed low to the ground, in a position that would've been hard for her to defend or attack from. It was a _dare_. 'Come get me.' So rarely had he seen her comfortable enough to dare another swordsman of Inferno's caliber, someone who could fight her to a standstill. Clearly, he hadn't seen everything yet.

Inferno was too busy recovering from her last attack, or too smart to try. Either way, she stood, and charged him. Went after him with such ferocity and speed that she was up next to him, attacking before it really registered with anyone, least of all Inferno, what she was doing.

Knock Out looked to those watching. Ratchet was wide-eyed. Moonracer was looking on in wonder, amazed that anyone could move like that. Ironhide was failing at not looking impressed. Wheeljack was slack jawed. Frenzy and Rumble were as close to the glass as they could get, staring wide-eyed and slack jawed at their leader. And Knock Out? He was impressed. It definitely showed.

The music reached a new intensity, and Nikki did as well. Knock Out saw several spots were Nikki might've theoretically been open to attack, if the attacker weren't struggling to track her speed. He knew Jarvis could've sent the simulation Inferno after her - he'd been programmed or asked by Nikki to not hold back.

But on closer examination, he noticed that the simulation was only moving in tandem with the music. Only going where Nikki wanted it to. Only able to attack when and where she wanted him to. It was her positioning, her moves, her stance. She was in complete control, but it was more than that. She was manipulating the whole situation so that Inferno would become part of her loop. Part of her dance.

It was _genius_.

Meanwhile, Nikki was having fun with it. The chorus came around again, and she danced the final moves, getting Inferno into place for the final, punishing, graceful blows of the routine. It ended with Inferno on his knees in front of her, his saber to the ground, off to the side, out of his reach. Nikki was panting, but triumph and delight were written all over her face.

As the music faded out, the simulation ended. She then noticed her audience. At first, it didn't look like she knew what to do with it. Then, slowly, she clipped her now deactivated saber to her belt and did Katniss's half bow. Moonracer clapped enthusiastically, the Minicon twins cheered. Ratchet and Ironhide and Knock himself clapped as well. Wheeljack was still too shocked to clap, but at least he wasn't slack jawed anymore.

Nikki straightened, smiled almost shyly and the lights inside the room went off, dimming out slowly. Nikki walked out, head held high, and wearing a huge grin.

 **A/N: Okay, so, guess which artist I found? Yeah, trick question. I** _ **adore**_ **Lindsey Stirling's stuff, and when I RP (All by myself because I have almost no social life and a small circle of friends who all live 30+ minutes away from me) and I hear this song, I usually think of epic fight scenes. Mainly this one. So I finally jotted it down and decided to post it because why not? Please let me know what y'all think of it!**


End file.
